High fuel costs impact commercial fishing

High fuel costs hurt charter, commercial fishing

By BRIAN SKOLOFF


ISLAMORADA, Fla. (AP) — Down here in the so-called "Sportfishing Capital of the World," there's a saying among anglers: Even during a depression, a man has money for beer and fishing.


Rising fuel costs and general economic malaise, however, are putting that mantra to the test in the Florida Keys and elsewhere where charter boat fishing brings in millions of dollars. Across the country, boat captains are feeling the pinch in recreational and commercial fishing.
As of Tuesday, the average cost for a gallon of diesel was near $4.80, according to AAA. That's up from an average of about $2.90 a gallon a year ago.


That means boat captains are having to raise prices or add hefty fuel surcharges to fees that before this season were already around $800 to $1,500 for a full day.
Some in the charter fishing industry estimate that business is off anywhere from 20 to 90 percent because customers just can't afford the added costs.


"Some guys are just sitting on the docks waiting for business and it ain't happening," said Steve Leopold, president of the Islamorada Charter Boat Association. "There's people who come down and don't even ask the price of my charters. Then there's people who ... say, 'Wow, can you cut me a break?' I say, 'If you bring your own fuel.'"


On a recent sunny afternoon at Whale Harbor Marina in the Florida Keys, Chris Adams, 41, had just returned from a half-day charter trip.
"We probably would have spent the whole day out but it would have been $400 more," Adams said. His half-day trip this year cost $800, about what a full day on the water cost last year.
There's less money to spend on vacation, Adams said, when you also factor in how much more it cost him just fill his own gas tank for the drive. Adams has driven down from Connecticut for the past three years, a round trip he said would cost him about $600 more this year than it did last year.


Pensacola Charter Boat Association President Paul Redman said even the cost of bait has gone up because of higher fuel costs.
Redman said he charged customers $1,200 for a recent six-hour trip on the water but $500 for fuel, $100 for bait and tackle, and $100 for his deckhand meant his profit was a mere $300. Five years ago, it would have topped $800.
"It's just about not worth doing it anymore," Redman said.
The charter fishing fleet generated more than $1.1 billion in revenues nationwide, including some related sales, in 2000, the latest figures available, according to the National Marine Fisheries Association.


Commercial and charter fishing industry representatives from around the country plan to meet with members of Congress on Wednesday in Washington, seeking some kind of financial relief to help offset losses.


Some regions are suffering from a one-two punch of higher fuel prices and the closure or shortening of seasons for popular fish species, said Bob Zales, president of the National Association of Charter Boat Operators.
In the Florida Panhandle along the Gulf of Mexico, anglers come from across the country to fish for red snapper. But combined federal and state limits have reduced the catch allowed per charter boat and shortened the season.


Zales said he estimates that up to half the entire Gulf charter fishing fleet from Texas to Florida could be out of business by December.
On the West Coast, where the federal government has closed all sport and commercial salmon fishing off California and most of Oregon due to a population collapse, the result has been "absolutely devastating," said Captain William Smith, who runs the 40-foot Riptide out of Half Moon Bay, Calif., just south of San Francisco.
Coupled with rising fuel costs, "I'm stupid to even stay in the business," Smith said. "But even if I was to try to sell my boat, nobody's buying.


"Profits?" he quipped. "I'm in the hole."
Smith has diversified his business, adding trips to scatter cremation ashes and for whale watching, and has even had to pick up work as a handyman.
The nation's commercial fishing fleet is also taking a hit as many fisherman can't bring in enough added catch to keep profits ahead of fuel costs, said Sean McKeon, president of the North Carolina Fisheries Association.
The commercial fishing industry's catch was worth about $40 billion in 2006.


McKeon said that while Americans may not see less fish in their grocery stores, they could begin seeing more imports, not to mention jobs lost in the industry and the resulting economic impacts to communities.
Adding to the problem is that many boats in the commercial and charter sectors have been on the water for decades and are not fuel efficient. A typical twin-engine charter fishing boat uses about 10 gallons of diesel per hour. A pair of newer, more fuel-efficient engines can cost more than $100,000.


In the commercial industry, trawlers, like shrimp boats that drag nets, typically burn the most fuel. Captain Louis Stephenson, who operates an 85-foot shrimp boat out of Galveston, Texas, said the average trawler burns up to 25 gallons of diesel an hour.
Stephenson recently reduced his fuel consumption by modifying his trawling device to produce less drag. He said he now burns about 16 gallons an hour.
Still, with fuel prices so high, "My boat's tied up and it's not going anywhere this year," he said. "I can't even break even so there's no sense in going out."


The cost to upgrade commercial boats with more fuel-efficient engines far exceeds what the industry could make given the glut of imported shrimp and higher diesel prices, Stephenson said.
Charles Adams, a marine economics specialist with the University of Florida, said that since early this year, profits in the shrimp industry have dropped as much as 50 percent.
"It's gotten to the point now where many of the boats simply can't afford to fuel up," he said.
Associated Press writer Kevin Maurer in Carolina Beach, N.C., contributed to this report.